Does TUPE apply in circumstances where a company goes into voluntary liquidation and its business is closed with all employees being made redundant and then a buyer is subsequently found for the business, for example, a month or two later? Do the employees automatically transfer to the new owner?

Where a company is the subject of “bankruptcy or analogous insolvency proceedings” instituted with a view to liquidating its assets under the supervision of an insolvency practitioner, the employees will not be accorded the normal protections under TUPE in respect of the automatic transfer of their employment and associated rights, duties, powers and liabilities on a relevant transfer, nor the protections against detrimental changes to their contracts or unfair dismissal by reason of the transfer.

Therefore, the dismissed employees will not automatically transfer to the buyer when the business is subsequently purchased and do not have special protection against dismissal. In this case, the